Return to Sender
by DBZHobbit
Summary: Duo is returned to Maxwell church after another failed adoption. It is then that he finally decides to become Duo Maxwell.


**Name: **DBZHobbit

**Word Count:** 1,526  
**Character: **Duo  
**Warnings:** Fluff, angst  
**Title:** Return to sender

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Sister Helen heard a knock on the church door and went to see who it was. When she opened it she felt a small pang in her heart. In the doorway stood a man, a woman and a small braided boy who she already knew "Sister? Can we talk?" the man said 

"Certainly" Helen replied, "Duo, would you go through to the other room please?" The little boy nodded sadly, he knew he wasn't going to leave with the couple and slowly walked through to the adjoining room. He sat down on the other side of the door and hugged his knees. Did they think that he couldn't hear them talking? Mind you, he'd heard it all before. He was 'difficult' and 'too full of energy' the most common one was 'We can't handle him' once somebody had even said that he was too much of a free spirit. He sighed, why didn't anyone want him? He tried to be good and remembered his manners like Sister Helen had taught him. He always did as he was told, well, most of the time. Why could he never make anyone happy? Couples come and adopt because they can't have children or they take pity on the war orphans but they always seem disappointed with getting Duo and he was always brought back. One family had been particularly cruel, put him in a box and literally mailed him back to Maxwell Church. He'd had so many names now, Duo Honshu, Duo Johnson, Duo Dibrell. Some people even had the nerve to change his first name, he'd been called Yaten, Tomah, Odin, he couldn't even remember half of them. He never answered people if they didn't call him by his proper name, the name his parents gave him. It was the only thing that he had had from them, his name. He was too young to remember his surname when they died but he had remembered that he was called Duo. At night his mother still came to him in his dreams, telling him to keep trying and to stay strong and just before he woke up she would tell him that her and his father loved him. Duo always woke up from those dreams crying.

The adults had finished talking and Duo heard the main door close. He shuffled out of the way of the door as he heard Sister Helen come towards it. She opened it and peered in "Duo? Are you ok?"

"I'm used to it"

"Duo, do you want some breakfast? Your parents said that you had to leave early so you didn't get a chance to eat"

"They're not my parents anymore and I'm not hungry"

"Duo..." Helen walked over, crouched down and gave the chibi a much-needed hug. "It'll be ok Duo. You just need to find the right people"

"But I've seen so many people and none of them are right"

"Well, there are a lot of people out there. We just need to get them here some how."

"Yeah, I guess"

"There's another couple coming in tomorrow looking for a child to adopt. Maybe they're right for you"

Duo shrugged and sighed; Sister Helen saw this as an opportunity to cheer Duo up. "Do you know what happened to Father Maxwell when he went shopping last week?" Duo shook his head "Well, he was walking past a fruit stall when you'll never guess what happened"

"What?" Duo giggled

"He slipped on a banana skin" The little American burst out laughing. He knew that most of Sister Helen's stories were just to cheer him up, and even though they weren't real they always managed to do their job.

Sister Helen mentally congratulated herself on putting a grin on Duo's face; she hated it when he was upset. He looked so forlorn and depressed that anyone around him felt down. But just like when he was upset, when Duo was happy so was everyone else. He had almost become the spirit of the people in the church and even though Helen wasn't really allowed to, she always got upset when Duo left the church. She missed his presence and his cheeky grin and when he runs behind her to hide from one of the priests after knocking something over or playing one of his pranks on them. Sometimes she wished that she could adopt Duo, it never felt right to see him walk away with someone else. Maybe that's why God kept bringing him back to her. She made a note to thank God extra for Duo in her prayers that night.

After insisting that he wasn't hungry Duo returned to his room, it was known to everyone as his room now. He'd been there for so long that even in the short times that he was gone nobody else occupied it. He unpacked and put all of his belongings in their previous places he then sat on his bed and thought. Unfortunately his happiness from Sister Helen's story was only temporary and soon he was feeling sad again. He looked out of his window and up on to the road that worked its way around the cliffs near the church. The roof of the kitchen was just below Duo's window and every now and again Duo would climb out and sit on the roof. He usually did this when he didn't want to be found and after a few more minutes of thought he decided that he didn't want anyone bothering him right now so he opened his window and climbed out. He sat at the edge of the roof that was closest to the cliff wall; nobody could see him from below because the kitchen chimneys where in the way. He curled up and leaned against the brickwork. There were times were he needed to be alone but Duo hated being alone. He never liked having no one to talk to and he loved to make people laugh but right now he didn't feel like laughing.

After about half and hour Duo found that he was crying, crystalline tears were trickling down his cheeks. Would he always be alone? Why did nobody want him? Why did they always subject him to the pain of rejection? It was like he was a faulty toy, when you find out what's wrong with it you take it back to where it came from. Duo's tears became more frequent and his breath began to catch. He buried his face in his hands and sobbed, "I've had enough! No more adoption! No more hurt! I wont go anymore! I want to stay here! I want to be Duo Maxwell!" Duo cried for a bit longer and then he felt a little better. For a moment all around him was silent, he could smell the food in the kitchen and could almost taste it in his mouth then the silence was broken by his stomach growling.

Meanwhile, on the road on the cliff another small boy was walking alone. He was looking out at the scenery with a bag of apples slung over his shoulder. He was lucky that he'd found that apple tree; this would be his food for the next week or two. After a little while he past a church, he was just walking by when he heard a small sound. It sounded like someone crying, curiosity got the better of him and he walked to the edge of the road and looked over the small fence. It was a boy, well, at least he thought it was a boy, he did have pretty long hair. Just as he thought, the boy was crying, after a minute or two he stopped and looked around him. The boy on the road could smell the aroma that was coming out of the chimneys the other boy was sitting by. Presumably the other boy could too as his stomach growled so loud that it reached the cliff ledge. The brown haired boy on the road thought for a moment then removed one of his apples from his bag. He leaned over the fence and stretched his arm. He then dropped the apple into the braided boy's lap and carried on walking.

Duo rubbed his stomach and was just thinking about going to see if he could get some food when an apple landed in his lap. He looked around, nope, no apple trees. He then looked up and saw a brown haired head walking along the road. That must be where the apple came from. He called up to the head "Thank you!" and promptly took a large bit out of his gift.

The boy on the road smiled, getting thanked felt good. He then carried on down the road, not entirely sure where he was going. The boy on the road was the boy who was going to later be known as Heero Yuy. Little did he know that he was going to meet that braided boy again, both of them would remember this incident far into adulthood, but neither of them would realise that it was the other but at least they became great friends.

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Very short one-shot that I wrote for a challenge a while ago... I only found it today heh heh....

anyhoos, Read and Review people!!! You'll be seeing more angst from me soon.


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